🔍 Looking For Truth 🔎 Open Thread

Diogenes was supposedly a man searching for the truth. I found 3 quotes supposedly from him although none of his writings have actually survived.

Blushing is the color of virtue.

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.

I agree with quotes 2 and 3 but I definitely have a problem with the first.

Blushing is the color of virtue.

I am extremely fair complected and I blushed often in my younger years – never more than when I was in trouble and about to tell a whopper. Blushing was, at least in my case, not the color of virtue – it was the color of trying to save my butt from Mom’s wrath.

Diogenes was reputedly quite a character. He became notorious for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man.

He would probably have as much trouble finding an honest person today as he did then.

I have no doubt that there are many honest people in this country and around the world. What I doubt is that they, the honest people, speak much or gain any attention when they do.

The majority of attention goes to politicians, media talkers and Hollywood characters. Of those three I don’t know if politicians or media talkers are the most dishonest but I am quite convinced that the nitwits from Hollywood are the least informed.

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. ~ Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow died April 27, 1965 and it is only now that the we see how prescient he was. Media would have done well to heed his warning. Had they listened, and learned, they might not now find themselves in a fight to retain any credibility with the American People.

The MSM is losing the respect of the American People at an alarming rate. They need to return to being “journalists” not opinion and advocacy writers if they ever hope to regain the people’s confidence. Quite honestly I don’t think they are capable of doing that. They cannot see themselves for what they’ve become. There is also the matter of their monumental arrogance which doesn’t allow for much retrospection.

FOX became popular because many on the right had never heard a voice that was in agreement with what they thought and believed. For many years Republicans and Independents had no where to go on television. Cable changed that. Then the Internet changed it even more.

Many middle-aged voters are outraged that their parents and grandparents still listen to FOX and support Trump. They cannot understand that for most of their lives these older voters had no voices that spoke to them. All voices were liberal.

FOX became their port in an endless liberal storm. And young people harassing Seniors about their viewing and voting choices is not going to end well.

Seniors remember when those young voices were young enough to still think they knew everything. Their lecturing now is a reminder that they didn’t know everything then and still don’t.

Now the left and #NeverTrumpers cheer the problems at FOX and the older crowd sees the only voice they had diminished. That voice is about to change out of all recognition should the young Murdock brothers have their way. Many who are cheering the problem don’t even watch FOX but they want to see it fail. Very mean-spirited IMO.

Politicians on the other hand, even the best of them, cannot tell the public the truth – not if they want to get elected. The bad ones, the majority, would lie anyway.

So year in and year out the public listens to a litany of lies from those seeking office, or those seeking to be returned to office, who make promises they know they cannot keep. Or will not keep. Yet the public will believe the next liar that comes along and usually returns the liar to office.

Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. With wide name recognition, and usually an insurmountable advantage in campaign cash, House incumbents typically have little trouble holding onto their seats.

Each member of Congress has a office budget allotment which provides enough money to hire a sizable staff both in Washington, D.C. and back home in their states or districts. These staffers assist members in their efforts to be effective, well-liked representatives.

In addition to money for staff, members of Congress also have travel allowances for trips between Washington and their constituencies as well as for trips inside their states or districts. One of the most widely recognized “perks” of House members and Senators is the ability to send postage-free informational letters or announcements to their constituents on a regular basis.

When voters give congress only a 15% approval rating they need to take a good long look in the mirror. They voted these people into office and they keep them there. Perhaps a little Mea Culpa from the voters should accompany the stones thrown at the pols.

So here we are, like Diogenes, searching for an honest man/woman, and voting again and again for known liars.

Truth isn’t always what we want to hear. When we only listen or watch or read those that say the things we want to hear we aren’t being informed – we’re having our own opinions affirmed. Echo chamber mentality.

23 Responses to “🔍 Looking For Truth 🔎 Open Thread”

I apologize for some of the squashed text at the top of this post. It isn’t the way I typed it and for some reason WordPress will not let me fix it. Some days WordPress just likes to mess with my head. It always wins.

However I am nothing if not tenacious bullheaded so I will continue, periodically to try to fix it. I hope it isn’t too unreadable.

That aside, it is a great post, Marge. It never ceased to amaze me how much the MSM would scream and yell abt Fox being biased – as if the VAST majority of them were also not biased. But THEIR bias is acceptable, dontcha know, so they scream, yell and try to drown out Fox or any conservative opinion writer. It is just astonishing.

Let’s reverse angle. The president’s first 100 days in office have been analyzed, dissected, evaluated. Not much left to say about them. What about the opposition? What do the Democrats have to show for these first months of the Trump era?

Little. Trump’s defeats have not come at the Democrats’ hands. Those setbacks have been self-inflicted (over-the-top tweets, hastily written policies, few sub-cabinet nominations) or have come from the judiciary (the travel ban, the sanctuary cities order) or from Republican infighting (health care). Deregulation, Keystone pipeline, immigration enforcement—Democrats have been powerless to stop them.

Chuck Schumer slow-walked Trump’s nominations as best he could. In fact his obstruction was unprecedented. But the cabinet is filling up, the national security team in place. On the Supreme Court, Schumer miscalculated royally. He forced an end to the filibuster for judicial appointments, yet lost anyway. If another appointment opens this summer, and the Republicans hold together, the Democrats will have zero ability to prevent the Court from moving right. No matter what he says in public, Schumer can’t possibly think that a success.

A district judge has as much power to “strike down” a national policy or statute and have it take effect outside his district as much as Congress has the power to adjudicate an individual bankruptcy case. That is to say, they have no such power at all.

Although we are suffering from a general constitutional crisis of judicial autocracy, the growing phenomenon of district judges issuing nationwide injunctions on broad national policies and laws – and having them recognized obsequiously by the other branches of government – is taking the crisis to an entirely new level.

I appreciate you posting this. I had been wondering how in the world these judges could do that, especially when hearing legal minds say they can’t. So why the hell is everyone acting like they CAN??? I don’t get it…

There is a hell of a lot of things going on in this country that is “illegal” besides immigrants. Yet no one seems to have the will to stop it.

Sanctuary Cities are by definition breaking the law. Yet they do as they please and get away with it. And when Trump threatens to cut their Federal funding they act as if he’s the bad guy and the media is on the side of the lawbreakers. It’s just crazy.

And all those Obamabots who claimed he was essentially the Messiah who eschewed wealth despite already BEING very wealthy (still want to know how an unknown state senator got a big book deal to tell his story) are now freaking out. We tried to tell them – REPEATEDLY – that Obama was not who they pretended he was.

I agree that they are dead. I think the person who made the image was thinking that 2008 was the year when they quit pretending to have any credibility whatsoever in their slobbering love affair with Obama.

A court official confirms that no public disciplinary proceeding has ever been brought against Barack or Michelle Obama, contrary to a false Internet rumor.

By voluntarily inactivating their licenses, they avoid a requirement to take continuing education classes and pay hundreds of dollars in annual fees. Both could practice law again if they chose to do so.

Of course Michelle later kept saying it was because they didn’t want to be a part of “Corporate America”.

I don’t think either of them wanted to do the work required to keep up their licenses. They’ve made a lot more money in politics than they would have as mediocre lawyers.

Hillary Clinton announced on Tuesday that she takes responsibility for losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. Sort of.

According to the newly-defanged former Democratic leader, she takes “absolute personal responsibility” for her loss – but she adds that “I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off….if the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.”

But aside from that, she takes responsibility.

What does she have going on next? She says, “I’m now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance.”